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    Trump Investigations Thread

    To #1, the charges aren’t actually made up. Some of them (most notably the Manhattan charges, which can probably be tossed on summary judgment) are basically a prosecutor contorting the law to make something stick. Ironically, charges related to “bad legal advice” could well be used against the...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Nope, you hit the nail on the head. Quite honestly, I appreciate the back and forth on this. I apologize for having only limited time to go back into this today but I appreciate you taking the time to go do some digging on this at your end as well to teach me a couple of things! As to the...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Fair enough. And you’re welcome; I appreciate good discourse as well.
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    I didn’t address it because A) Tanner was decided *before* McNally -by only two days, yes, but still BEFORE. Therefore, whatever the substance of text of Tanner is (which I’ll address in a moment). But there are two other things to consider: 1) The sentence RIGHT before the one starting your...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Okay, a couple of things: First, and incidentally, Tanner does NOT postdate McNally. In fact, Tanner was actually decided two days before. Second, the relevant issue in this discussion is that in Tanner, the conspiracy to defraud that he was charged with involved him ripping off a government...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Actually, Tanner ALSO involved money. More importantly, SCOTUS just this year ruled in two cases (Ciminell v United States and Percoco v United States) that, in order to meet the definition of “fraud” under criminal law: "[T]he federal fraud statutes criminalize only schemes to deprive people...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Respectfully, I understand exactly what you’re arguing. What you apparently missed was my pointing out that the definition of the word “fraud” in U.S. law *as a whole* is limited to money or tangible property/something of tangible worth. So, some background on this, just so you’re clear: In...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    The wire fraud statute is one I’m very familiar with, actually, from my professional life. But the approach to this has been litigated many times, and in McNally v. United States (1987) the Supreme Court ruled that, to be actionable under the law, “fraud” is defined a deceptive scheme designed...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Actually, as far as the Biden allegations go, I don’t think most Democrats actually expected them to come to light, and I think the rest genuinely bought the party line, only to have it shoved in their faces that Biden did, in fact, take money from foreign governments while in office. Nor did...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Actually, a couple things on this: A) when the FBI searched Anthony Weiner’s laptop, they found forensic evidence of emails Clinton had sent to Weiner’s wife, which did turn out to include classified information. That was why Comey ended up having to announce in October that there was in fact...
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    Things get worse in The Southwest

    A guy goes to place an order for a Trabant (or other East Bloc car). Pays for it, is told it’ll be ready for him to pick up in ten years. “Morning or afternoon?” “It’s ten years, what difference does it make?” “Well, the plumber is coming in the morning.”
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Not for nothing, but if you genuinely want to understand other people and have them (us) listen to your views with a bit more respect, maybe show some (even if you’re privately wondering about the sanity of some of us)? Otherwise you just come off as a caricature yourself, and nobody learns...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    No, I understood what you were saying; my argument is that, unfortunately, a lot of what you’re saying is incorrect. First off, I should clarify that I live in the Soviet Socialist Republic of New Jersey, so public corruption is something with which I am all too familiar. I had hoped that with...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Well, the real problem isn’t any component of the CIA so much as it is reining in the leadership. Like when Clapper (or was it Brennan?) was director and ordered CIA personnel to hack into the Intelligence Committee’s computers on Capitol Hill to see what incriminating evidence they had. The...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Oh FFS, not this shit again. The origin of this claim was a crank writer for the LA Times who was no-shit snookered by a KGB disinformation plot (yes, the KGB as this was the 1980s). Sure, they knew it was bullshit, but between the aftermath of the Church & Pike Committee hearings in the 1970s...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Again, I’m still waiting to see what happens, since it’s hard to predict just what is going to happen in the next 12-15 months. As far if he actually wins? It’s never been considered, but in theory as chief executive he could order his own release since the Bureau of Prisons ultimately works...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    I actually got that from reading the indictment itself. So, yes, I know just what’s being discussed here since, even though I am not a lawyer, I do have enough experience with reading legal documents and understand exactly what’s being said and the basis for it so…yeah, I’ve been paying very...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    I’d also point out that in addition to not being self-funding, Trump is actively using the GOP as his personal piggy bank. One example being the “legal defense fund” he supposedly set up for January 6th protestors…all the money instead ended up going to paying his presidential campaign’s bills...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    The Espionage Act (at least the part concerning Trump) covers willful retention of national defense information among other things. Broadly speaking, I understand your argument, but it mainly comes down to it being national defense information that Trump retained tdespite repeated efforts by the...
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    Trump Investigations Thread

    Uh, no, it isn’t, because prior case law on it has ruled that the parts of the Espionage Act related to mishandling classified information are still in force (if they weren’t, Snowden wouldn’t have taken off for Russia, and people like Manning and Winner wouldn’t have won a free trip to jail)...
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